Current Situation

The United States is not currently experiencing an influenza pandemic.

It is impossible to predict when the next pandemic will occur or its impact. There are ongoing efforts by the Federal Government to monitor and assess pandemic threats and prepare for an influenza pandemic.

Novel influenza A viruses with pandemic potential include Asian lineage avian influenza A (H5N1) and (H7N9) viruses. These viruses have all been evaluated using the Influenza Risk Assessment Tool (IRAT) to assess their potential pandemic risk.

Because we cannot predict how bad a future pandemic will be, advance planning is needed at the national, state and local level. Whether the planning is for a government entity, a business, school, community-based organization, or healthcare system, all planning efforts should take into consider multiple scenarios of a pandemic (e.g. moderate, severe, or very severe) so that they can be ready to respond quickly and take the appropriate measures to continue daily operations. Additional resources can be found on the Pandemic Planning Resources and Archived Pandemic Planning Resources web pages.